playing michael dukakis. you really do have to go back to ronald reagan to find a republican that was in command during a presidential debate. and i predict that's going to excite the republican base in a way it hasn't been excited in a very long time. we're not used to winning debates like this. >> right. >> i'd even -- i think you're exactly right. and i'd push back even farther. he was better than nixon. and he was better than ford. so you could argue, except for president reagan, governor reagan then, it was, in fact, the strongest republican debate performance in the history of televised debates. the other thing that i find so interesting -- and joe, i wonder what you think about this -- is this was not a tea party message. one of the reasons perhaps governor romney did so well is that this might actually be the real governor romney at last. >> yep. >> and it was a very -- people could take me on on this, i would argue that was a mainstream conservative message that could have been largely unchanged exce